On a day like today, 24 years ago, the strongest seismic activity, recorded with instruments in the country, occurred at 11:35 am (local time). During 45 seconds, the earth shook all along the volcanic chain filling the country with mourning.

One of the most affected areas was the colony Las Colinas, in Santa Tecla, La Libertad, where more than a hundred homes were buried when a portion of the Balsamo Mountain Range came off.

The earth movements of recent weeks in the departments of La Unión, La Paz, and Sonsonate increased fears that something with a magnitude close to 7,7 on the Richter scale could shake the country.

According to estimates of the time the energy released by the telluric phenomenon, 24 years ago, was equivalent to 360 atomic bombs.

The earthquake’s epicenter was located 18 kilometers off the coast of Usulután, at a depth of 60 kilometers, and impacted 11 of the country’s 14 departments.

That earthquake left a trail of death and destruction: 944 dead, more than a million damaged, and millions in losses.

The fear of something similar happening again is more present after a study by Spanish scientists indicated that the Guaycume fault, the same one where the disaster occurred, is a candidate for a possible destructive earthquake.

jrr/arm/mem/lb